24 March 2007

-- DESERONTO -- Painted school buses and a simmering wood fire now mark the entrance to Thurlow Aggregates on Deseronto Road.

The interior of the property is now a campground for about 50 aboriginal protesters, who worked through the night Thursday to prepare the site to be there for “as long as it takes,” said spokesman Shawn Brant.

The Mohawks are protesting the operation of a gravel pit on lands they say were wrongfully taken from them in 1832.

"Every year, 10,000 trucks of gravel are being shipped out of here," Brant said. "It’s an affront and an indignity to our community."

This whole thing has gotten me thinking. Maybe I can dig up some beef my ancestors had with the Crown 175 years ago.